who are rather 'sharp' people, are not a bad lot--they'll give
Guest and myself a bonus of some sort if we do them good over this
wrecked ship."

"And if you don't 'do them good'?" he asked, with the same
half-humorous, half-sarcastic smile.

"If we don't, the senior partner in our highly-esteemed, sailor-sweating
firm, will tell Guest and myself that we 'made a most reprehensible
mistake,' and have put the firm to a considerable loss by doing too much
on our own responsibility."

He nodded as I went on--"We heard of this wreck from the officers of a
French cruiser which called at Samoa while we were there. They sighted
her lying high and dry on the reef, sent a boat ashore, and found her
abandoned. She was bilged, but not badly, as far as they could see. On
the cabin table was nailed a letter, written by the captain, saying
that being unable to float the ship again, and fearing that he and his
unarmed crew would be attacked by the savages, he was starting off in
his boats for Thursday Island, the nearest port. Now, that is a big
undertaking, and the chances are that the poor fellows never reached
there. However, Guest and I thought so much of the matter that we
hustled through our business in Samoa, and sailed the next day direct
for Rook Island, instead of doing our usual cruise to the eastward. But
we met with fearful weather coming up through the Solomon Group, lost
our foretopmast, and strained badly. And here we are now, tied up by the
nose off the South Cape of New Britain instead of being at Rook Island
at work on that wreck."

Yorke thought a moment. "Well, gentlemen, let me come in with you--just
for the fun of the thing. I don't want to get any money out of it, I
assure you, and I'll lend you a hand with the wrecking work."

"Agreed," said Guest, extending his hand, "but only on this
condition--whatever our owners give Drake and myself, we three divide
equally."

"As you please, as you please," he said. "Now come aboard my little
hooker, and have a look at what is in the hold."

We went on board the Francesco with him, and made an examination of
her small but valuable cargo, and Guest and I agreed that he had
underestimated its worth by quite four hundred or five hundred
pounds--in fact, the whole cargo would sell in Sydney or San Francisco
for about sixteen hundred pounds.

We sailed together that afternoon, the cutter getting under weigh first.
We had given Yorke three of our men--Napoleon the Ton